Re: I have an idea! (Good this time)

En réponse à David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>:

>     I know at least one person went to Cal (Irina?), but for those of
> you who
> didn't/don't, I'll explain.  We have these classes at Cal called DECal
> classes (stands for Democratic Education at Cal).  I'm sure there are
> similar
> programs at almost every university.
Not in France at least, that's for sure :( .

  Anyway, I'd always wanted to teach
> one,
> but didn't know what to do (my Peter Greenaway idea didn't get off the
> ground, and I really wasn't up to having some sort of fiction writing
> workshop).  Then, just today, I came up with the idea that should've
> been
> obvious to me by now: A Conlang class! ~:D  I'm really excited about
> this.  I
> don't think I could do it this upcoming semester, but I want to try
> for
> Spring 2002.  My idea was that all the people taking this class would
> come
> once or twice a week and we'd talk about different topics in
> Conlanging
> (types of verb systems, cases, etc.), and all the while, each student
> would
> be working on his/her own language.  And, of course, they'd share
> their
> languages and their progress, their ideas, etc., and by the end they
> should
> have a working sketch of their own language.  It would be so cool!
That's one of the best ideas I ever heard of!!! I love it. I wonder if I could
do something like that when I'm in Delft... Probably not, it's a Technical
University after all...

>     Also, I'd love it if any of you could type up some sort of paper
> (2-3
> pages, or however long you need) on some aspect of conlanging, like
> the
> sections in the Conlang Book.  Also, I'd like to get some language
> sketches.
> They'd have the basic information in the Conlang Book, but in addition
> to a
> translated sentence, you might include specific aspects of the language
> that
> are interesting, out-of-the-ordinary.  For instance, you could list your
> verb
> conjugations (if you can fit all 7,000 onto a few pages), the types of
> cases,
> the moods, the classifiers, etc.  What I'm hoping for is to be able to
> put
> together a reader that would have a bunch of information on linguistics
> in
> general, topics in language creation, and a ton of example languages.
I still have to do something for the conlang book, but I'm afraid it's getting a
little late isn't it? But all the material available on my webpage (in French!)
can be borrowed at will, as long as my name is cited as the author. As for my
other conlangs that are not on the web yet. Most of them I've bored the list
with, so a simple look at the archives should do :) . I'll make something though
:) .

>     Anyway, I'd love some feedback on this.  I have months and months
> to
> plan.  What do you all think?
>
Well, it's wonderful!

Just an idea: I've always found classes where the teacher invites other people
for conferences about a particular subject more interesting than classes where
you stay always in front of the only teacher and that's all. Why not invite
other conlangers to participate in one class or another, for one hour or so? You
could for instance invite Sally Caves, for the paper she already presented after
the "Lunatic Survey". A few others of us already did presentations about
conlanging, we could be invited (yes, I'm one of them, that's why I'm interested
:) , it would be a good reason to go for the first time of my life to America,
and probably the first time I would take a plane :) ).

Anyway, it was just a thought, but it could be nice and attractive for your
future students.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr